Many commercially available over-the-counter oral cold, cough, flu, fever, and/or allergy preparations contain pseudoephedrine as an active agent. Although such preparations have been useful, misuse of such products as a starting material for synthesis of illicit substances has lead to the desire to find alternatives that are not suitable for such illicit synthesis. Phenylephrine is a potential alternative active. However, phenylephrine is susceptible to degradation. The degradation is typically facilitated in excipient compositions of the type typically used with pseudoephedrine.
Orally administered pharmaceutical compositions are provided to patients in many dosage forms, including solid forms such as capsules, caplets or tablets and liquid forms such as solutions, suspensions and liquid fill for capsules. For many patients including young children, older persons and incapacitated persons, a chewable dosage form is preferable because of the ease with which it may be ingested.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a palatable, chewable dosage form comprising phenylephrine with reduced propensity for degradation of phenylephrine.